Application For Grad School: MICA

Artist Lecture #7: Amy Hauft

Amy Hauft is the chair of the Department of Sculpture and Extended Media at VCU. She is currently showing an exhibit at the Anderson Gallery and gave a lecture yesterday, 12/2/09 about her recent project Counter Re-formation.

It was great being able to interact with the art pieces as Hauft was talking about them. The immense size of the table that Hauft had created for the main attraction, which was inspired by Louis XIV’s banquet table that obviously had Hauft’s personal twist, was overwhelming when viewed at ground level. The white, spiral staircase that was installed was so that you would be able to take in the aerial view so that you could view the pieces as a landscape, as intended. I thought that this was a great way of including the viewer in the art piece because it was a personal decision if you wanted to climb up the floor to ceiling staircase or not.

Although I found her work to be kind of interesting, as much as she spoke about the importance of the materials that are used in a project I was very disappointed with the ones Hauft chose for this project. The materials that were used were all bad for the environment and there was very little sugar used throughout the table, which I thought was important for the idea of the project.

http://www.vcu.edu/arts/gallery/

11/23/09 Artist Post: Justin James King

“Justin James King radically intervenes in the common spectacle of the tourist vista by removing the view itself in his series And Still We Gather With Infinite Momentum. A lone figure stands on a promontory gazing out into the utter void. Commenting on the reflexive act of looking (and by extension, on the rich traditions of landscape photography), Justin says,

“Perhaps all we see when we stand in front of the landscape are archetypes: preconceived notions and pre-experienced viewsOur perception grows out of how we have seen the landscape represented and how it has been delivered to us historically and in popular culture.”

By removing the sweeping natural view, Justin undercuts the entire premise of the conventional landscape, pulling off the tricky business of making a photograph about the invisible.”

Although I had a hard time finding information on Justin James King I really enjoyed his work. For series And Still We Gather With Infinite Momentum, it portrays loneliness even though that is not his direct intent. Same with his series Flat On My Face At The Edge Of The World.

Website:

http://justinjamesking.com/index.php?/news/

Interview:

N/A

Gallery:

N/A

11/19/09 Word Post: Propaganda

prop·a·gan·da [ pròppə gándə ]

Noun

Definition:

1. Publicity to promote something: information put out by an organization or government to promote a policy, idea, or cause

2. Misleading publicity: deceptive or distorted information that is systematically spread
Propaganda is a form of communication aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position. As opposed to impartially providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense, presents information primarily to influence an audience.

I was told that my work needs to be influenced by propaganda more then what it is because what I am trying to say is not as obvious as it needs to be. The pictures that I am currently shooting definitely make it more obvious that loneliness is the main theme. I think that it has definitely become clearer.

Defining propaganda has always been a problem. Garth Jowett and Victoria O'Donnell have provided a concise, workable definition of the term: "Propaganda is the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist” This definition focuses on the communicative process involved -- more precisely, on the purpose of the process, and allows "propaganda" to be considered as a neutral activity, which can be seen as positive or negative behavior depending on the perspective of the viewer.

Artist Lecture #6: Diego Sanchez

I attended the Diego Sanchez lecture at Page Bond gallery and although I did not find much of his work that intriguing there were a few that caught my eye. However, his playful mannerisms are definitely what pulled me in. When talking about his work he mentioned how he fell in love with formal architecture and although he has never been to Rome but how he is going to work with the Coliseum until he is sick of it.

When preparing his work, he usually starts his panels by staining it with color. He builds surfaces, however, since he is not much of an organized person he uses grids which keeps him grounded. He then just takes his time and just studies the surface of the panels until something hits him. Sanchez’s work is very dependant on the surface of his images. When asked about the drafting lines that show up in his images he said that “they are sometimes planned and sometimes they just show up.”

Sanchez has been trying to find the tie between representation and nonrepresentational of elements. He is interested in how people view representation. He creates a realistic space and then comes back and vacates it. You get a major sense of space and depth when viewing his painting.

When talking about the difference in subject matter between his images of the Coliseum and that of an “underpass,” his latest painting, Sanchez stated that “Art is about recording history as you are making work. Artists can give importance to everything in life. Good thing about being an artist is you can look at something mundane and make it important.” He also mentioned how much you can tell about a person by the types of chairs they choose to purchase when speaking about his images of chairs.

Artist Lecture #5: Mary Scurlock

I got the luck of going to visiting lecturer Mary Scurlock at Page Bond Gallery. I have a great obsession with trees and that is her main source of imagery. The reason that she decided to use trees is because it is a metaphor for her personally. A couple of years ago she needed to get surgery on her leg. When she went to see the doctor, they mention how “one leg feels like glass, one feels like wood.” She saw this as a good metaphor for things that happen in our lives and decided that a tree was a good choice for imagery for this.

When making her paintings, it is an evolving process. She works in mixed media. Scurlock builds up about 5 layers of gesso and then continuously digs into it. She then uses oil paint and wax, which tends to take away some of the oil paint. She carried her old style of using writing in her paper paintings to using it in her panel paintings, which she mentioned is just a good aesthetic. Scurlock states that she “doesn’t want her images to be super realistic. A memory is a good way to put it.”

Scurlock mentioned when asked about the point of view of the trees she has painted that she “wanted there to be a depth to the trees and that is why she picked that point of view.” He work is defiantly more about the process but it is also a conscious, formal decision for every mark that she makes on her panels.

When asked about her scale of her images, I couldn’t help but disagree with another viewer who said they wanted to see them large. I feel like that petite size of her panels if perfect for all of the intricate details that are seen throughout. I feel like if they were too much larger they would be overwhelming. Scurlock mentioned how incredibly times consuming these images are and that they might be too much if done in a larger size.

My favorite image of her that was shown tonight was one that was at the back of the gallery. Most of her tree images were done in a very neutral, cool color pallet but this image was done darker. I instantly fell right in love with it because the color is more engaging. I really enjoy her other images but I just could not stay away from this one. It is her latest work and I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.

11/16/09 Artist Post: Jeff Wall

Epic and luminous, the work of Jeff Wall has overturned nearly every convention of photography. Meticulously staged and theatrical in scale, Wall’s images have more in common with the grandest history painting of the 18th century and the flickering mesmerism of cinema than with the fleeting, documentary style of much of modern photography. Forty-one works of the Vancouver-based artist, who pioneered the use of the light box as a vehicle for displaying photographs, are included in this major retrospective exhibition, previously installed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Although Wall’s images are well planned out, they hold a very documentary style of photographing. This is the type of style that I want my images to hold. His images are incredibly planned out, when it is clear that mine are not, but they have this style that I can’t help but admire. Wall said that every image that he produces is to replicate a real gesture that he saw. He has a very voyeuristic style to his images, like his subjects done necessarily know that he is present, another thing that I admire.

Gallery:
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/jeffwall/infocus/section4/

Interview:
http://www.museomagazine.com/issue-0/jeff-wall

Website:
N/A

Review:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/25/magazine/25Wall.t.html?_r=1

Artist Lecture #4: Shimon Attie

Upon seeing Attie's work, he focused his presentation on an underlying theme that collective memory is the root of history, stating that he articulates relationships between place, memory and identity through imagery that both originates in and is superimposed upon marginalized communities whose histories are in the process of being forgotten. His haunting art made the forgotten again visible. Attie himself described it as a "peeling back the wallpaper of today to reveal the histories buried underneath."

Attie created a five-channel video installation and a body of still photographs to re-imagine the Welsh village of Aberfan. In 1966, the village became known the world over when a coal waste tip slid down a mountainside and buried the village's only primary school. Nearly an entire generation of the village's children as well as many adults lost their lives. Within hours of the disaster -and ever since- the village lost its privacy as the worldwide news media descended upon it. Having become "famous" as the village that lost its children and forever identified with the disaster, Aberfan -and places like it the world over- has found it difficult to move on. In 2006, on the disaster's 40th anniversary, Attie was invited by the BBC to come to Aberfan to see if it was possible for a contemporary artist to help the village move on. Over the course of several months he invited villagers into his studio and asked them to assume statuary poses that would reflect their social or occupational role within the village while he filmed them on an unseen slowly revolving stage. The Attraction of Onlookers thus lies at the intersection between the static and moving image. Individuals were illuminated by a complex lighting set up that created a delicate and beautiful play of light and shadow reminiscent of Old Master paintings. No actors, digital effects, slow motion, or still photographs were employed. Villagers 'performed' being themselves, with the resulting 'cast' including: the fish-and-chips man (the 'chipper'), the ex-coal miner, the headmaster, the minister, the boxer, the male choir singers, their conductor, the bartender, and so on. By consciously playing on iconic Welsh tropes, Attie created an artwork, which might help Aberfan, take its rightful place, 40 years on, as a Welsh village among other Welsh villages.

I really enjoyed this series. I just could not drag my eyes away from the people that are shown. It defiantly took me by surprise when one of these “static” people would move something minor, like blinking an eye or something like that. I personally believe that it made these videos stronger.

Website:
N/A

Interview:
N/A

Gallery:

http://www.artnet.com/artist/1730/shimon-attie.html

Http://collections.mocp.org/info.php?f=maker&type=browse&t=objects&s=Attie%2C+Shimon

11/12/09 Word Post: Emotional Detachment

Detachment is an inner state of calmness and being uninvolved on the emotional and mental planes. It is definitely not indifference. People who are indifferent do not care about anything, and are not active and initiative. On the other hand, people who possess emotional and mental detachment can be very active and caring, though they accept calmly whatever happens. Such people accept the good and the bad equally, because they enjoy inner balance and peace.

Emotional detachment can mean two different things. In the first meaning, it refers to an inability to connect with others emotionally, as well as a means of dealing with anxiety by preventing certain situations that trigger it. This detachment does not mean avoiding the feeling of empathy; it is actually more of an awareness of empathetic feelings that allows the person space needed to rationally choose whether or not to be overwhelmed or manipulated by such feelings. Although you will still have feelings for those persons, places and things from which you have become detached, you will have given them the freedom to become what they will be on their own merit, power, control and responsibility. Emotional detachment in the first sense above often arises from psychological trauma and is a component in many anxiety and stress disorders. The person, while physically present, moves elsewhere in the mind, and in a sense is "not entirely present", making them sometimes be seen as preoccupied or distracted.

"Letting Go"
* To "let go" does not mean to stop caring; it means I can't do it for someone else.
* To "let go" is not to cut myself off; it's the realization I can't control another.
* To "let go" is not to enable, but to allow learning from natural consequences.
* To "let go" is to admit powerlessness, which means the outcome is not in my hands.
* To "let go" is not to try to change or blame another; it's to make the most of myself.
* To "let go" is not to care for, but to care about.
* To "let go" is not to fix, but to be supportive.
* To "let go" is not to judge, but to allow another to be a human being.
* To "let go" is not to be in the middle arranging all the outcomes, but to allow others to affect their own destinies.
* To "let go" is not to be protective; it's to permit another to face reality.
* To "let go" is not to deny, but to accept.
* To "let go" is not to nag, scold or argue, but instead to search out my own shortcomings and correct them.
* To "let go" is not to criticize and regulate anybody, but to try to become what I dream I can be.
* To "let go" is not to adjust everything to my desires, but to take each day as it comes and cherish myself in it.
* To "let go" is to not regret the past, but to grow and live for the future.
* To "let go" is to fear less and love myself more.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/14712-developing-detachment/

Barlow, David H. (November 2002). "Unraveling the mysteries of anxiety and its disorders from the perspective of emotion theory". American Psychologist: 1247–63. http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/amp/55/11/1247.pdf.

Ohman, A. (2000). Fear and anxiety: Evolutionary, cognitive, and clinical perspectives. In M. Lewis & J. M. Haviland-Jones (Eds.). Handbook of emotions. (pp.573-593). New York: The Guilford Press.

11/9/09 Artist Post: Sophie Calle

Sophie Calle (born 1953) is a French writer, photographer, installation artist, and conceptual artist. Calle's work is distinguished by its use of arbitrary sets of constraints, and evokes the French literary movement of the 1960s known as Oulipo. Her work frequently depicts human vulnerability, and examines identity and intimacy. She is recognized for her detective-like ability to follow strangers and investigate their private lives. She is fascinated by the interface between our public lives and our private selves. This has led her to investigate patterns of behavior using techniques akin to those of a private investigator, a psychologist, or a forensic scientist. It has also led her to investigate her own behavior so that her life, as lived and as imagined, has informed many of her most interesting works. Calle's very first work involved following strangers around the city of Paris. Calle had been abroad for a number of years and the idea behind this surveillance was initially an attempt to reacquaint herself with the city. However, she soon discovered that observing the behavior and actions of these strangers provided information with which to construct their identities.

"...These works had involved me so much in the act of following that I wanted, in a certain way, to reverse these relationships. So I asked my mother to hire a private detective to follow me, without him knowing that I had arranged it, and to provide photographic evidence of my existence." Sophie Calle

Calle’s work is relatable to mine because we are both taking images of strangers, usually without them knowing. While she is following people around, however, I am either lying in wait for people to come to me or going to find them. I do not pick a specific person to follow but that might be an interesting way for me to go. We are both pushing the limits between private and public spaces.

Gallery:
http://www.paulacoopergallery.com/artists/6

Website:
N/Aaaa

Interview:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/jun/16/artnews.art
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1285/is_10_31/ai_78738614/

VMFA Fellowship Application

11/5/09 Word Post: Solitude

Solitude is a state of seclusion or isolation; i.e., lack of contact with people. It may stem from bad relationships, deliberate choice, contagious disease, disfiguring features, repulsive personal habits, mental illness, or circumstances of employment or situation. Short-term solitude is often valued as a time when one may work, think or rest without being disturbed. It may be desired for the sake of privacy.
A distinction can be made between physical and mental seclusion. People may seek physical seclusion to remove distractions and make it easier to concentrate, reflect, or meditate. However, this is not necessarily an end in and of itself. Once a certain capacity to resist distractions is achieved, people become less sensitive to distractions and more capable of maintaining mindfulness and staying inwardly absorbed and concentrated. Such people, unless on a mission of helping others, don't seek any interaction with the external physical world. Their mindfulness is their world, at least ostensibly.

“Solitude is painful when one is young, but delightful when one is more mature.”
Albert Einstein

Maltsberger, J.T., M. Pompili and R. Tatarelli (2006). "Sandro Morselli: Schizophrenic Solitude, Suicide, and Psychotherapy". Suicide & Life Threatening Behavior '36' (5): 591–600. doi:10.1521/suli.2006.36.5.591. PMID 17087638.

11/2/09 Artist Post: Gregory Crewdson

Gregory Crewdson is an American photographer who is best known for elaborately staged, surreal scenes of American homes and neighborhoods. Gregory Crewdson works within a photographic tradition that combines the documentary style of William Eggleston and Walker Evans with the dream-like vision of filmmakers such as Stephen Spielberg and David Lynch. Crewdson’s method is equally filmic, building elaborate sets to take pictures of extraordinary detail and narrative portraits. Recent series include Twilight and Beneath the Roses, everyday scenes with charged, surreal moods that hint at the longings and malaise of suburban America. These pictures are like incomplete sentences, with little reference to prior events or what may follow. The artist has referred the 'limitations of a photograph in terms of narrative capacity to have an image that is frozen in time, (where) there's no before or after' and has turned that restriction into a unique strength.

The feeling of isolation throughout Gregory Crewdson’s images is very apparent. In his mystical images, you are able to sense the loneliness of his subjects. I am not sure if it is because of the subjects that are incredibly secluded or the way the images are portrayed that give off this feeling but it is something that I hope to hold in my images as well.

Website:
http://www.luhringaugustine.com/index.php?mode=artists&object_id=66

Gallery:
http://www.gagosian.com/artists/gregory-crewdson/exhibitions/
http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist_works_172_0.html

Interview:
http://www.sitesantafe.org/exhibitions/virtualgalleries/frcrwan/crewdsonqa.html

10/29/09 Word Post: Isolation

Isolation is the act of isolating something; setting something apart from others or the act of isolating, or the state of being isolated; insulation; separation; loneliness. Strangely enough, isolation is perhaps the most valuable and difficult commodity to manage in the game of art making. Loneliness is a feeling where people experience a powerful surge of emptiness and solitude. Loneliness is more than the feeling of wanting company or wanting to do something with another person. Someone who is lonely may find it hard to form human contact. Many people have times when they are alone through circumstances or choice. Being alone can be experienced as positive, pleasurable, and emotionally refreshing if it is under the individual's control.

To experience loneliness, however, can be to feel overwhelmed by an unbearable feeling of separateness at a profound level. This can manifest in feelings of abandonment, rejection, depression, insecurity, anxiety, hopelessness, unworthiness, meaninglessness, and resentment. If these feelings are prolonged they may become debilitating and prevent the affected individual from developing healthy relationships and lifestyles. If the individual is convinced he or she is unlovable, this will increase the experience of suffering and the likelihood of avoiding social contact. Low self-esteem will often trigger the social disconnection, which can lead to loneliness.
Loneliness can evoke feelings that 'everyone else' has friends, and that one is socially inadequate and socially unskilled. A lonely person may become convinced there is something wrong with him or her, and that no one understands his or her situation. Such a person will lose confidence and will become reluctant to attempt to change or too scared to try new things for fear of further social rejection. In extreme cases, a person may feel a sense of emptiness.

People can experience loneliness for many reasons, and many life events are associated with it. The lack of friendship relations during childhood and adolescence, or the physical absence of meaningful people around a person is causes for loneliness, depression, and involuntary celibacy. At the same time loneliness may be a symptom of another social or psychological problem, such as chronic depression.

Secretly, you want to be found and you know that you eventually will but you persist in making yourself as invisible as possible even as you are filled with the anticipation of discovery. Waiting for change in isolation feels a bit like this except the anticipation is more akin to fear. I feel like I am holding my breath and the isolation make the struggle all the more intense. It’s not the being alone that is necessarily difficult it’s how that isolation clouds your perception of the world. Things seem bigger and more / too important without the benefit of another voice in the room saying, “chill out” (the voices in your head don’t count.)

We suffer a lot in our society from loneliness. So much of our life is an attempt to not be lonely: 'Let's talk to each other; let's do things together so we won't be lonely.' And yet inevitably, we are really alone in these human forms. We can pretend; we can entertain each other; but that's about the best we can do. When it comes to the actual experience of life, we're very much alone; and to expect anyone else to take away our loneliness is asking too much.

* American Buddhist monk Ajahn Sumedho: The Way it is

1."Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection", Caccioppo, John T and William Patrick,W.W. Norton, NY, 2008. ISBN 978-0-393-06170-3.

2. Doyle Paul Johnson, Larry C. Mullins, "Religiosity and Loneliness Among the Elderly ", Journal of Applied Gerontology, Vol. 8, No. 1, 110-131 (1989).

Visiting Artist #3: Robert Crumb

Due to my enrollment in a Counterculture Literature class here at VCU I had the unbelievable luck to get to see the Robert Crumb lecture last night at Richmond’s Centerstage. He was there to discuss his most recent book, a fully illustrated version of Genesis, based largely on Robert Alter’s 2004 translation. If you’re interested in comics, you already know who Robert Crumb is. Françoise Mouly, who would be interviewing him at this event, might not have the same name recognition as her more controversial subject, but her contribution to the world of comics is substantial. Together, after a brief introduction, these two giants of comics took the stage at the Carpenter Center on a rainy Tuesday night to discuss Genesis and all things Crumb.

When I say Crumb “took the stage” I could more accurately say “hit the stage,” as he made his entrance with a perfectly executed pratfall — a trick he’s apparently been working on of late. Crumb is not someone who’s known to be particularly interested in interviews, book tours, etc. so there was certainly some discussion before-hand as to how engaged he might be in the discussion to come. He addressed this head-on, semi-sarcastically remarking, “It’s an ordeal, but I’m a nice guy! It’ll help sell books….” Françoise began by suggesting that she’d be attempting, through the interview, to disabuse the audience of what she feels are some inaccurate perceptions that people generally have about R. Crumb: “People think they know you.”

The final — and most lengthy — topic of the Mouly/Crumb interview portion of the evening was a discussion of Genesis. In one of the more memorable moments of the interview, Françoise had brought along with her a stack of complaints The New Yorker had received after publishing an excerpt of the book, and she began reading them to Crumb. People’s grousing ranged from letters tersely complaining that the work was “salacious and adolescent” to a lengthy multi-page diatribe from a Hebrew scholar who was apparently quite upset about a single word in the text, which he felt had been inaccurately translated. On the general topic of translation minutiae, Crumb said, “The people who are into this stuff don’t even agree on what it all means. And people kill each other over this thing!” Another letter complained that the Crumb Genesis excerpt “didn’t add anything” to the original text. Responded Crumb: “I didn’t want to add anything. I just wanted to illustrate it.”

I found his work to be crude, yet, intriguing at this it’s best. He not an artist that I would necessary follow, however, he is defiantly of a type of mild amusement. The types of people that he brought out did not surprise me, neither did the price of the tickets…

10/26/09 Artist Post: Merry Alpern

In 1995, with the unexpected help of an NEA rejection, Merry Alpern became notorious for her photo series "Dirty Windows." Shot covertly across an airshaft, through a bathroom window on Wall Street, Alpern's photographs of female prostitutes and high-powered businessmen are strange and indistinct. Captured yet elusive, these images are more startling in their voyeuristic magnetism than they are shocking. The viewer must try to make sense of them, to cull stories from blurred lines and sheds of fabric. The viewer was shown images of blow jobs, strip teases, coke snorting, and a bunch more of other types of activities.

Alpern herself said:
“Reoccurring characters gave these pantomimes a soap opera quality and I'd try to decipher plot lines and guess the next scene. These minidramas and their unvarying props-- condoms, tattoos, silicone, crack-- filled my head and I began to think about the windows all the time. They found their way into my dreams.”

She captures absolute strangers in intimate situations. Her quest is the unadulterated, immediate moment and not a pose struck by someone aware they are being photographed. The persons captured in her camera’s viewfinder do not become suspicious, nor do they later discover their role in Alpern’s photographs. But then these are not portraits or photographs of persons but rather pictures of actions. Alpern’s final shots are such that her subject’s face – and thus identity – remains concealed.

Alpern’s images are incredibly invasive which is something that I strive for. The way that she frames the windows and catches these acts blows my mind. I think that the grainy quality of her images makes them even stronger. It helps you feel just like your peeking in, which is exactly what she was doing. While the images that I am working on now less and less have to do with these types of images I am still trying to find the perfect opportunity to arise where I am able to capture images like this, not exactly like these but with the same intrusive quality.

Gallery:
http://www.bonnibenrubi.com/Merry-Alpern_12_artworkdetails.html

Interview:
N/a

Website:
N/a

I was having a difficult time looking for information on Merry Alpern. She didn’t have a website and I couldn’t find any interviews either.

10/22/09 Word Post: Surveillance

Surveillance is the monitoring of the behavior, activities, or other changing information, usually of people and often in a surreptitious manner. It most usually refers to observation of individuals or groups. Surveillance maintains social control, recognizes and monitor threats, and prevent/investigate criminal activity.

Some supporters of surveillance systems believe that these tools protect society from terrorists and criminals. Other supporters simply believe that there is nothing that can be done about it, and that people must become accustomed to having no privacy. As Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy said: "You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it.”
Some groups fear that society is moving towards a state of mass surveillance with severely limited personal, social, political freedoms, where dissenting individuals or groups will be strategically removed.

I have pretty much just been doing surveillance on people. Watching them as they walk by, trying to see what they are up to when they think nobody is watching. My last attempt at this was using a rearview mirror and trying to photograph the people in the cars behind me. This feat is actually difficult and I am having a hard time doing it.

Ethier, Jason. "Current Research in Social Network Theory" (in English). Northeastern University College of Computer and Infomation Science. http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/perrolle/archive/Ethier-SocialNetworks.html. Retrieved 2009-03-15.

Jensen, Derrick; George Draffan (2004) (in English). Welcome To The Machine: Science, Surveillance, and the Culture of Control. Chelsea Green Publishing Company. pp. 131. ISBN 978-1931498524.

Ressler, Steve (July 2006). "Social Network Analysis as an Approach to Combat Terrorism: Past, Present, and Future Research" (in English). Homeland Security Affairs Volume II (2). http://www.hsaj.org/?fullarticle=2.2.8. Retrieved March 14, 2009.

10/19/09 Artist Post: John Pfahl

“John Pfahl is an exemplary post-modernist landscape photographer. He is in love with the sensuous qualities of unspoiled vistas, and with the detailed transcription of them that a traditional view camera provides. But he is too self-conscious and historically aware an artist to give in to what tempts him, so he puts a conceptual frame around every picture he takes.” John Pfahl's work is a tireless investigation of our perceptions, encompassing a variety of approaches but always with a keen awareness of the interaction of vision, images, and nature. His series "Picture Windows" (1978-81) framed the way we likely spend the most time seeing, on a daily basis. Below is Pfahl’s artist statement having to do with his “Picture Windows” series.

“While making my "picture window" photographs, I came to think that every room was like a gigantic camera forever pointed at the same view. In the dictionary, of course, the word camera in Latin means chamber or room.
I searched the country for these cameras and their views: the more unusual or picturesque, the better. It was often hard to tell from the outside what could be seen from the inside, so I was usually surprised when I discovered a scene in its new context.
Strangers with puzzled looks were amazingly cooperative in letting me into their rooms with my photographic gear. They let me take down the curtains, wash the windows, and rearrange the furniture. Often, too, they expressed their desire to share their view with others, as if it were a nondepletable treasure.
I liked the idea that my photographic vantage points were not solely determined by myself. They were predetermined by others, sometimes years earlier, and patiently waited for me to discover them.”

I am currently trying to discover the formal components of the window and what exactly it means. I am not sure what exactly it means but John Pfahl was using it as a frame for what was outside the window as opposed to what the window means. He has a very formal way for his images and I hope that this becomes clear in my images as well.

Website:
http://johnpfahl.com/

Interview:
N/A

Gallery:
http://cybermuse.gallery.ca/cybermuse/search/artist_work_e.jsp?iartistid=4295

Artist Lecture #2: Brian Ulrich

Brian Ulrich (born 1971) is an American photographer known for his photographic exploration of consumer culture. Born in Northport, New York, Ulrich lives in Chicago, Illinois. In 2001 in response to a national call for citizens to bolster the American economy through shopping, Ulrich began a project to document consumer culture. This project, Copia, is a series of large-scale photographs of shoppers, retail spaces, and displays of goods. Initially focused on big-box retail establishments and shoppers, the series expanded to include thrift stores, back rooms of retail businesses, art fairs and most recently empty retail stores and dead malls.

I must say that there is defiantly something about his work that I just can’t get enough of. I rather seem to enjoy the pieces that do not have people in them more. I found his lecture to be thorough and Ulrich to be an intriguing speaker with a great sense of humor. He defiantly knew how to draw the crowd in to listen to what he had to say. I think his images that were the strongest were defiantly those in which they were on accident. However, looking at his website his Trashcam series is defiantly intriguing and I just can’t get enough of it. You can tell by viewing Ulrich’s images that he has a lot to say of America’s over consumerism. Even in the above spilt milk image, you can see that somebody dropped a case of Pepsi on top of the Faygo, most likely because it was a lot cheaper. This is defiantly an artist that I want to keep tabs on.

Website:
http://notifbutwhen.com/

Interview:
http://www.lostateminor.com/2008/09/10/brian-ulrich/#more-9605

Gallery:
http://www.artnet.com/artist/424468234/brian-ulrich.html